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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 26 april 2022
Women protest in Mexico City over killings, disappearances

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hun- tion — of the young wom-
dreds of women marched an. Nobody saw her again
through downtown Mexico until late Thursday, when
City and its suburbs on Sun- investigators managed to
day to protest the horrifying pull her body from the 12-
death of an 18-year-old in foot (4-meter) deep water
the northern city of Monter- tank near a pool at the
rey. roadside motel.
Protesters also marched Critics are disturbed by the
in the rough suburb of Ne- fact that even when au-
zahualcoyotl, where two thorities are spurred to act
women were killed in the by public outcry, investiga-
last week. The demonstra- tions are seldom very timely
tors, mainly women, car- or efficient.
ried signs reading "No to Investigators said 200 per-
Harrassment" and "Mexico sonnel used drones, search
is a mass grave." dogs and reviews of secu-
In Mexico City, the march rity camera footage to look
was largely peaceful, un- for Escobar, though her
like many previous wom- body was lying not far from
en's rights demonstrations where she exited the taxi.
in recent years. The dem- Killings of women have in-
onstrators did not spray- creased in recent years in
paint slogans on the Angel, Women march against the recent murders of several women, in the Mexico City suburb of Neza- Mexico, rising from 977 in
a tall stone monumental hualcoyotl, where two of the women were killed last week, Sunday, April 24, 2022. 2020 to 1,015 in 2021. Those
shaft commemorating the Associated Press were just cases classified
country's independence. as "feminicides" a legal
Instead, they taped small ing people of all genders the head, apparently soon got out of his car alive on term used in Mexico when
missing posters on it, each has risen to over 100,000. after she was last seen April the outskirts of Monterrey. women are killed because
one describing the disap- Activists say police and 8. There she was, a young of their gender. Killings of
pearance of a woman. prosecutors have been Her case shocked Mexico, woman standing alone at women overall are much
Many of the posters de- slow and ineffective in in- because the young wom- night on the side of a high- higher. Disappearances of
picted Debanhi Escobar, vestigating the cases. an was left on the side of a way, wearing a skirt and women remain high, with
whose body was found Those criticisms were rein- highway late at night, pur- high-top sneakers. about 1,600 reported miss-
Thursday in a cistern at a forced when the father of portedly after a taxi driver The image seemed to ing so far this year. Officials
motel in Monterrey, almost Debanhi Escobar said au- tried to fondle her. speak of the tremendous say 829 of them are still list-
two weeks after she had thorities had searched the The case made headlines vulnerability, and the self- ed as missing, and 16 were
gone missing. motel several times. But because of a haunting assuredness — or despera- found dead.q
Marchers chanted "Jus- it wasn't until workers re- photo taken by the driver,
tice, justice!" and carried ported a foul odor coming who was supposed to get
a banner reading "24,000 from an underground wa- her home that night.
are missing" about disap- ter tank that investigators The driver, who worked for
peared women. Overall in finally found her body. She a taxi app, took the photo
Mexico, the number of miss- had died from a blow to to show the 18-year-old

Exiled ex-Ecuador president doesn't

exclude political return

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Ecuador's National Court ceives as political persecu-
BRUSSELS (AP) — Former of Justice sent a new ex- tion would be to hold an
Ecuador president Rafael tradition request for Correa elected position again.
Correa said the political last week, but it has since "So if I need to return to my
asylum he has been grant- emerged that the Belgian country to win the election,
ed in Belgium is proof he is Commissioner General for I should do that," he said.
persecuted by his country's Refugees and Stateless Ecuador's National Court
authorities and did not rule Persons granted the former of Justice president Iván
out a return to politics in an head of state asylum, with Saquicela said last week
interview with The Associ- the status of refugee.The that he signed the order
ated Press on Monday. agency has issued a cer- initiating the extradition
Correa, who in 2020 was tificate dated April 15 that process in relation with Cor-
found guilty of corruption has been seen by the AP. rea's sentencing in the cor-
and sentenced to eight Correa said he can now ruption case. At the time,
years in prison in absentia, travel safely across the prosecutors said the former
has been living in his wife's world, except in Ecuador. president oversaw a plot
native Belgium since 2017. "I give conferences, I give in which foreign and local
Though Ecuadorian author- economic advice, so I businesses made cash pay-
ities have demanded his have to travel to work, to ments to his now defunct
arrest and extradition previ- get an earning," he said. Alianza PAIS political party
ously, thus far he has been Correa said the only way in exchange for lucrative
allowed to stay in Belgium. for him to stop what he per- public works contracts.q